The present invention relates to a self-closing hinge, particularly to a spring-less structure that accomplishes automatic closing with small angle movement.
Many electronic products available in the market today, such as laptops, mobile phones, translation machines, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and the like; generally have a main body and a screen or lid that can be hinged or rotated by a certain angle relative to the main body. Traditional mechanical hinges require the user to manually open and close the device through the full range of motion. Other hinges have attempted to provide for automatic closing of screens or lids through use of torsion springs which resist the opening of the hinge and force the door shut. However, such springs have a limited lifetime and operate over the entire range of angular movement, thereby prohibiting the screen or lid from remaining open at a fixed location.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved hinge structure which overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings in the prior art by providing automatic closing of the screen or lid at small angles while still allowing the hinge to remain open at discrete angles therebetween.